Dredd – The Magic Mellow Out by John McCrea….

Just discovered these 3 unpublished Dredd pages from a story by Garth Ennis for 2000 AD called the Magic Mellow Out — surprisingly, this was a parody of the Magic Roundabout! I was really trying to get the feel of the original TV series with this art, spending hours cutting out the shapes of the flowers, trees etc from coloured paper and sticking them onto the art, ably assisted by my fab wife Rachel… this was, of course, a long time before I had even heard of the name Photoshop.

Unfortunately, the then editor of 2000, Richard Burton (and part time husband of Elizabeth Taylor) was adamant that the characters did not resemble in any way the characters from the Magic Roundabout (which is not what parody is all about, I think, though tell that to a lawyer…). These pages were my second attempt to make them not resemble the Roundabout gang and Richard was still unhappy with their appearance, so he booted me off the story and gave it to Anthony Williams (very fine fellow and artist of one of my favourite DC books, the criminally un trade paper backed Scare Tactics).

Magic Mellow Out was a two-part Dredd tale taking place in the Emerald Isle series. Ennis going over the top and having a great time with the stories. The Magic Roundabout bits come (as far as I can work out / remember) as a result of the use of mild hallucinogens in the gigantic retro Irish theme parks that dominate the remains of Ireland now.

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About The Author

Richard Bruton- Started in comics retail aged 16 at Nostalgia & Comics, Birmingham. Now located in Yorkshire, he's written for the Forbidden Planet International Blog since 2007. Specialising in UK Comics and All-Ages comics, Richard's day job in a primary school allowed him to build the best children's graphic novel library in the country.